Man on Death Row in S. Dakota ready to die

NEWS SERVICESCHICAGO TRIBUNE

This Old West town where Jack McCall killed gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok while he played poker in 1876 again figures in a capital punishment case in South Dakota, which may be facing its first execution in 59 years.

Now, Elijah Page wants to die.

Page, 24, has asked to fire his lawyer, forgo appeals and die by lethal injection for his role in the March 13, 2000, slaying of 19-year-old Chester Poage. Page and two other men beat, stabbed and tortured Poage in Higgins Gulch near Spearfish in the Black Hills of western South Dakota.

Page, of Athens, Texas, should find out at a hearing Monday if the same judge who handed down his death sentence will grant his request.

"If the results show you're competent to make the decisions, I will be inclined to honor your decision," Judge Warren Johnson told Page at a May hearing.

Defense lawyer Mike Butler has said he thinks Page's decision to end his appeals might be equivalent to a suicide attempt.

Page's execution already is set for the week of Aug. 28 at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls. The state Supreme Court has upheld his death sentence.

Johnson sentenced Page and Briley Piper, 25, of Anchorage, Alaska, to death in 2001 even though they pleaded guilty, saying he considered the killing vile and depraved.

That combination of a guilty plea and death sentence is rare, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which provides analysis and information on capital punishment issues. Page's refusal to pursue appeals also is out of the ordinary.

"There have been quite a few people, that is about 12 percent of those executed (in the U.S.), who had waived part of their appeals," Dieter said.

The third man charged with Poage's killing, Darrell Hoadley, 26, of Lead, opted to stand trial. He was convicted, and a split jury sentenced him to life in prison.